Artuur Masuaku was a major plus for the Irons against Spurs after his arrival on the pitch in the 73rd minute.
He added the thrust and pace required down the left side and has again put Aaron Cresswell’s position under keen scrutiny again.
His cross for Kouyate’s thumping header which dragged the Irons back into the game was a fabulous effort and his willingness to run at players and force an opening is highly encouraging.
Cresswell, meanwhile, had a game to forget and his pace and crossing ability is nothing like as effective as it was a couple of years back.
Bilic will be thinking long and hard ahead of the Swansea game but the one drawback in Masuaku’s game is its inconsistency and the occasional lapse in concentration which has cost us in the past.
However, given the manner of his 17 minutes on the pitch yesterday (Sat) it is going to be very hard to ignore Masuaku for the game against the Welsh side.
In the last 2 games Masuaku has scored one and made one, which is more than he has achieved during the previous year at West Ham.
His attacking game seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds, so hopefully he also becomes more consistant in that, but his defensive game is almost non-existent, so if Cresswell is replaced it won’t be by Masuaku.
As for Cresswell, he was approaching the old Cresswell from before his injury, until yesterday. But then again the whole shape of the team was thrown out, by the substitution of Carroll for Antonio, and luckily Masuaku was not asked to take part in the defensive duties.
We have Masuaku for another few years so let’s get the best out of him by developing his attacking skills, and leave the defense to defenders.
masuaku in front of cresswell seemed decent. shame we didnt have a doubling up on the right hand side too as that may have caused spuds a few more concerns.
it’s a good option to have and should probably be ahead of using hernandez as the left winger.
Totally agree. One thing that Masuaku is not is a defender. Every time I see him play he looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Mind you, he is not alone there in this West Ham defence ! So, I agree with the above – use him as an attacker, but please don’t put him in as a defender.
I know some of you think he is a poor defender but so is Cresswell, often gets caught out by players with quick feet and imho Masuaaku is actually a better defender than Cresswell who gets caught out less often, Cresswell looked good under Allardyce but Allardyce actually trained the players from a technical perspective, whatever I thought of the football you couldn’t say the team didn’t play with a purpose admittedly that mostly revolved around defending from 1 to 11, from a defensive perspective we were hard to break down unfortunately Allardyce was completely clueless when it came to switching defence to attack, he had one method which was lump it up to the big man and win the second ball see what happens, god forbid when Sakho and Valencia were new and we looked great on the counter attack he couldn’t have that Carroll had to go and ruin that for us when every fan that I know loved watching us play the West Ham way if you like..
He is not a defender but a lot of modern full backs or Wing backs arent. But he is only what 23 so he is young and their is potential and needs to be developed. He was always able to play in attacking position just first time saw it here tho he looked good a LWB.
But they said he couldn’t cross they was a lovely cross for Kouyate! And you would thinly with 2 Defenders Slav & Dicks they could help develop his defensive side. PVA Moreno players who can’t denfend in PL but good getting fwd.
true. Most of his crosses in pre-season ended up hitting the flood-lights, but yesterday it was spot on. He also got to the byeline for it which is very rare for him.
These are things he should build on to become a better option in midfield. He could save us some money.
Yes he could. He is pace strength dribbling and take ons all very good so he could easily be molded in to LW LM for future. With right training & development he has the attributes.